Crosswalks help reinforce the beauty of town-gown relations

In the Loop

Whether they are ''city'' commissioners or ''country'' commissioners, most all of Athens-Clarke County's elected officials talk regularly about the horrors of trying to cross the street here.

The effectiveness of crosswalks - or lack thereof - takes up an inordinate amount of talk time in meetings, while commissioners share personal stories about nearly getting mowed down while trying to cross Prince Avenue or Lumpkin Street.

Still, Mayor Heidi Davison seems a bit annoyed that one-third of the $30,000 crosswalk budget will be spent on county roads that run through the University of Georgia campus.

''UGA isn't helping out, are they? Should I even ask?'' she asked County Manager Alan Reddish in a meeting this week.

''Just think of it as town-and-gown relations,'' Commissioner States McCarter said.

Of course, a committee: Mayor Davison will put an end to the see-saw debate about the length and frequency of commission meetings - not by an up or down vote by the commission, but by appointing a committee to study the issue.

But a committee has already studied the issue - twice - and the full commission has discussed it - twice.

In a memo to commissioners this week, the mayor wrote that she won't call for a vote about changing meetings.

''We will continue with our meeting schedule as it currently stands - first Tuesday voting, third Thursday after first Tuesday agenda setting, Managers's Work Session and Agenda Review on the second and third Tuesday, respectively.''

That's such a mouthful of meetings and powwows that even the mayor didn't get it right. The board meets on the first Thursday after the third Tuesday to set its agenda.

Hold the smoke, the campaign's calling: Athens-Clarke County commissioners couldn't talk Tuesday night about whether to ban smoking, because John Barrow - one of the commissioners who championed the ban in the first place - was at an event for his congressional campaign.

Some of the commissioners were invited to the 5:30 p.m. campaign event for Barrow, so when he ditched a 5 p.m. meeting of the full commission, they assumed he wouldn't make the 6:30 p.m. committee meeting that followed, either.

With Commissioner George Maxwell out of town dealing with a family illness, the five-commissioner committee didn't have a quorum and sent away a handful of bar and restaurant owners who left work to come to the meeting.

Barrow said he showed up to the committee meeting, but by that time, committee Chairman Tom Chasteen had sent everyone home and, presumably, will take up the smoking issue at the committee's February meeting.

Who's a bigger tree hugger?: States McCarter and Tom Chasteen can't agree about how to protect the environment in the future - even if it's decades away.

Their debate got somewhat rough Thursday, as they argued about a proposed sewer line that's not in either one of their districts.

Public Utilities plans to build a sewer along Shoal Creek one day, but the laws of gravity mean the line would venture into the ''greenbelt,'' the rural zone with strict development limits.

Some anti-sprawl advocates say the sewer line will draw development, putting them in the somewhat awkward position of arguing in favor of septic systems.

In earlier meetings with staff, McCarter was sarcastic with Chasteen - ''Where do you think all this fecal coliform is coming from?'' he asked - but in a televised meeting Thursday, he questioned his fellow commissioners' constancy, saying that Chasteen was pro-sewer when he chaired sewer-expansion committee.

Quote of the Week: ''I'll let you two slug it out after the meeting,'' Kathy Hoard said in response to the heated debate between Chasteen and McCarter.